The Mayflower Compact (1620)

The settlers who came to the New World brought with them a great deal
of baggage in the form of ideas and beliefs they had held dear in England.
Indeed, many of them, such as the Puritans, came to America so they could
live in stricter accord with those beliefs. The Pilgrims, a branch of the
Puritans, arrived off the coast of Massachusetts in November 1620, determined
to live sacred lives according to biblical commands, and in so doing to
build a "city upon a hill" that would be a beacon to the rest
of the world.

But aside from their religious enthusiasm, the Pilgrims also knew that
the English settlement founded a few years earlier at Jamestown in Virginia
had practically foundered because of the lack of a strong government and
leadership. They would not make that mistake, and agreed that once a government
had been established, they would obey the commands of its leaders.

In making this compact, the Pilgrims drew upon two strong traditions.
One was the notion of a social contract, which dated back to biblical times
and which would receive fuller expression in the works of Thomas Hobbes
and John Locke later in the century. The other was the belief in covenants.
Puritans believed that covenants existed not only between God and man,
but also between man and man. The Pilgrims had used covenants in establishing
their congregations in the Old World. The Mayflower Compact is such a covenant
in that the settlers agreed to form a government and be bound by its rules.

The Compact is often described as America's first constitution, but
it is not a constitution in the sense of being a fundamental framework
of government. Its importance lies in the belief that government is a form
of covenant, and that for government to be legitimate, it must derive from
the consent of the governed. The settlers recognized that individually
they might not agree with all of the actions of the government they were
creating; but they, and succeeding generations, understood that government
could be legitimate only if it originated with the consent of those it
claimed to govern.

For further reading: William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (Morison,
ed., 1952); George Langdon, Pilgrim Colony (1966); John Demos, A Little
Commonwealth (1970).

The Mayflower Compact

We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign
Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland,
King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian
Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony
in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually
in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves
together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation
and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute
and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and
Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient
for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission
and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names
at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign
Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of
Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.